Sentinels of the Multiverse - Tips & Strategies

Sentinels is a complicated game (as @Takras recently pointed out). If you’re not invested in it, I’m sure it’s quite tedious. And when you first pick it up, it can be nearly overwhelming. The first and best strategy to helping a newcomer get into the game is to make sure you’re playing with the least complicated heroes, villains and environments (@Alston’s tip about playing against Baron Blade in Megalopolis does the trick, and using heroes like the Wraith and Tempest will ease things a little more).

But even doing this, I’m about 50/50 on first-timers being willing to play again. This makes me look for adjustments I can make to the rules for the first 5 or so games to not overwhelm them… but these are very hard concessions to make, as the game makes so much sense as it is, and tweaking at all can detract from the top-notch theme.

The one rule I’ve become willing to disregard for the benefit of a new player’s sanity is the Nemesis rule. It does take a little something away from the game if Baron Blade and Legacy aren’t doing +1 damage to each other, but it also gives that new player one less chance to say “What’s this? ANOTHER arbitrary rule to remember? OK, that’s all for me.”

At the end of the day, I want more people to play this great game with. Getting them up to speed before throwing out “so… did you notice these little symbols in the bottom right corner? Guess what they do…” helps a little bit.

(With a nod the the Grand Master of the Multiverse @Grysqrl’s tip Hero Turn Order)

For various reasons – newbie intro, a more tactical and social game, just a general feeling of hero team-up – we usually break the rule of round-the-table play during the collective Hero Phase.

Heroes don’t normally leap into battle in the order they were sitting around the dining room table at HQ when the Big Call came in – and they certainly don’t stick to a stringent and static order in the heat of battles in paneldom.

When it comes to the Hero Phase – we normally just pow-wow a bit and then take to the fight in any given order we choose that round. Since we are battling dastardly decks – there’s really no one around to complain.

Sometimes the cards let you jump into the fray and sometimes they whisper to hang back a bit. Things feel more tactical, co-op, and social, and heroes are able to play better off other heroes.

And it helps a great deal when The Matriarch starts turning the table into a Hitchcock set.

cleave29’s tip below actually isn’t a legal play. Wrest the Mind cannot be played on a character card (i.e. the main villain, other heroes, and a few exceptions like the Operative).

There is another nice two-card combo that you can use:
-Play Twist the Ether on Visionary, allowing you to change her damage type and boost or lower it by 1.
-Play Wrest the Mind on a non-character villain or environment target
-When the target of Wrest the Mind deals damage, you can redirect it to the villain (or whatever target you like). Twist the Ether then allows you to reduce the damage that Visionary does to herself and to the Wrested target (making it survive longer). Or increase the damage to the Wrested target if you want to kill it faster.

This is primarily useful on targets that deal large, single-instance damage (e.g. 5 damage to a single target rather than 1 damage to each target) since it costs Visionary HP to use Wrest.

If you are looking to purchase this game, look up the Enhanced Edition instead of the original. The additional content includes:
– A large number of tokens and tags to track damage and effects.
– The box itself was designed to hold the entire game AND the two expansions in the same box
– Dividers for the base game and all the expansions.
– Slight adjustments on cards to adapt to changing numbers of players

This seems like standard fare, but remember this was a kickstarter project that took off. I am impressed with the publisher that they took the time to improve their already impressive product.

Sometimes a gaming group wants to calculate, to strategize, to find that juicy combo that comes together in glorious brilliance.

And then sometimes you want to play Haka.

In the later game manuals (expansions, enhanced edition) both the villains and heroes are numerically graded.

For the villains, this relates to difficulty and how hard executing their turns are.

For the heroes, the number refers to how complex the character is to play and how straight forward their cards read.

I like to organize my boxes in ascending order, so once they are stored I don’t have to reference the manual every time I, or my players, are selecting their heroes and challenger.

When introducing players to the game or when time is something of an issue, be mindful of who comes out to play in the multiverse.

As critics of the game have said, keeping track of all the beginning turn, end turn, immunities and what not can be intimidating and slow down the game flow. To combat this, a few markers on the table can help players visualize what’s going on.

First, the enhanced edition comes with a number of tokens and chits that address all the games conditions that can be placed on or near the cards the effect. Greater Than Games also sells these individually (at this time of this writing they are out of stock however). I have found having the most experienced player manage these tokens as players go about their actions makes a big difference.

To make this even better, having a good storage solution makes set up, finding the necessary item and tear down much smoother as well. I recommend something like the following item:

UGG Counter Tray

With an exacto knife, you can cut out a few dividers to accommodate the long tokens. The plastic cover snaps tight and keeps them from bouncing around as well.

Often, this game appears to be the heroes battling against the villain and the environment. Looking at the specifics on the environment cards and thinking through some future situations can provide some opportunities for the heroes to gain an ADVANTAGE from their surroundings instead of just penalties.

Some environment cards deal damage to the “highest/lowest” hp target. This is usually not just hero targets. By allowing these to remain on table and even inflict damage on heroes a few times, you may gain a huge net benefit when those attacks redirect towards the villain and/or minions.

Similarly, some environment cards add damage bonuses. Most of the time, the heroes will have more total attacks than the villain and his crew. Overall, the good guys will deal more damage than they receive.

This “gaining an advantage from your surroundings” element is another great example of how this game keeps true to comic books. Many superheroes would have fallen if they had not used their wits to capitalize on what their environment supplied.

Are you finding everybody’s favorite time-traveling, thieving pirate too much to handle? Be sure that you focus fire on her ship. Most “draw the top card of the villian deck” can be a nuisance to the heros, but with La Capitan’s deck it is downright deadly.

With her ship in play, she is able to bring out her crew and some masty* ongoing cards much more quickly then you can say, “Walk the plank!” Make sure you drop that boat to the bottom of Davy Jones’s locker… or his space-and-time equivalent’s locker.

*Obviously meant to put “nasty” but the ship pun worked, so it’s still there… hmm… marine humor.

In order to maintain sanity, I recommend designating one player of your party to keep track of the villain and another to keep track of the environment. Splitting up the work load can really allow the game to be streamlined. Often if everyone is just peripherally aware, something might get missed…then you have to backtrack. This game can have a ton of effects in play at any given time. Simplify the game by designating duties.

I like to introduce others to the game.

I will always start the villain as Baron Blade in Megolopolis. I think that this is one of the easiest setups. It provides a little bit of a challenge without making it super easy.
For the second game, I like to do the opposite. Citizen Dawn in the Wagner Mars Base. This provides a very hard opponent and environment that is sure to band together the heroes. If they lose then they immediately want to play again. Having that early win keeps then involved, having the lose makes them want to win the next time.